Dinosaurs and Birds

Last night on the Science channel there was a segment on Genetics and Dinosaurs. There have been fossils discovered that when broken, contain soft tissue that is well preserved as well as on a cellular level. Researchers are now trying to extract DNA from these soft tissues to map out the Gnome of these extinct organisms.

The next half of the segment went into detail on how similar birds are to Orthopods (predatory dinosaurs such as raptors). What is really surprising is the Genes of that of birds are strikingly similar to that of dinosaurs and it has been discovered that birds genes turn off their dinosaur traits as the embryos develop. One set of researchers discovered that chicken embryos contain 8 to 13 vertebrae in the tail bone but as the embryo develops it shrinks to a few. Knowing this , some researchers have modified the genes of some chicken eggs early in development via adding proteins and certain viruses to prevent the embryos genes from shortening its initially long tail bone. Because of these modifications the embryos grew with a longer tail. Researchers in different areas of the country have done the similar experiments with other features of birds during develop such as finding the genes that remove the teeth that embryos initially have and modifying those genes, genes that give birds feathers instead of scales, and the genes that give birds wings instead of arms. This reverse engineering of bird genes will eventually give rise to protodinosaurs. As Jack Horner pointed out an Emu is already the size of raptor , these genetic modifications could help it turn into one.


I think this is really cool, genetic engineering like this with the continued advancement of genetic technologies could give researchers the ability to produce other extinct animals by reverse engineering the genes of animals that are related to the extinct creatures. Imagine the possibilities.

Ed Deming's The New Economics

During my spring break, I read Edward Deming's book, The New Economics, which contained numerous innovations for Government , Industry, and Education. Edward Deming was a quality specialist, who is known for his revolutionary quality innovations that were embraced by Japan after WW2. The U.S. disregarded his teachings until the 1980s when industry in the country faced quality issues.

There were several concepts that I found interesting. Deming suggested that all companies/organizations view all of their departments and processes as components of a system
He stressed the importance of component is to help the entire system, so it is acceptable for certain components to be operating at a loss if it helps the overall system accomplish its aim. This was of particular interest because most organizations view their IT departments as cost centers but should view IT as a component that is essential for the organization to meet its aims.

Deming stressed the importance of cooperation vs competition including internally within an organization as well as companies within the same industry. From cooperation comes standardization.


Deming stressed the importance of theory, which is the base for knowledge. Theory allows for revision and prediction and allows one to use knowledge to make sense of information that is received.




Deming, E.(1994). The New Economics For Industry, Government, Education. MIT press.

Cambridge.